Background, aim, and scope Clothes are often discarded when much of their potential lifetime is left. Many charitable organizations therefore collect used clothing and resell it as second-hand clothes for example in Eastern Europe or Africa. In this connection, the question arises whether reusing clothes actually results in a decrease of the environmental burden of the life cycle of clothing. The environmental burden of clothing has been studied in several studies. However, most of these studies focus solely on the energy consumption aspects and pay little attention to the potential benefits of diverting used clothing from the waste stream. The aim of the study was to assess the net environmental benefits brought by the disposal of used clothing through charities who return them for second-hand sales assuming that second-hand clothes to some extent replace the purchase of new clothes. Materials and methods The extent to which second-hand clothes (SHC) introduces such a replacement was investigated applying a methodology in which a questionnairebased survey was conducted on more than 200 consumers in second-hand shops. The survey was done in Sweden and Estonia, and Africa was included by estimation. Based on the identification of the different profiles of the consumers questioned, a methodology was developed to get a quantitative evaluation of the replacement of new clothes enabled by second-hand clothing consumption. A life cycle assessment was conducted based on the EDIP methodology. The life cycle impacts of clothes that are directly disposed of by incineration were compared with the life cycle impacts of clothes that are collected and sorted after consumer use in order to be reused. Two products were assessed: a cotton Tshirt and a pair of polyester (65%)/cotton (35%) trousers. The functional unit was 100 garments in the use stage. Results Based on the survey result and the methodology applied, the purchase of 100 second-hand garments would save between 60 and 85 new garments dependent of the place of reuse. Based on information about the second-hand clothing activities conducted by Humana People to People in Sweden and Estonia, it was assumed that over 100 collected items 60 would be reused, 30 recycled in other ways, and ten go to final disposal. Using these inputs, the LCA showed that the collection, processing, and transport of second-hand clothing has insignificant impacts on the environment in comparison to the savings that are achieved by replacing virgin clothing. The reduction of impacts resulting from collecting 100 garments for reuse range from 14% decrease of global warming for the cotton T-shirt to 45% reduction of human toxicity for the polyester/cotton trousers. Discussion The approach applied is a fair way of establishing the net benefits from introducing clothes reuse. Indeed, it enables to take into consideration all the activities connected to reusing clothes, including, for instance, recycling and disposal of the collected clothes not suitable for reuse. In addition, the routes followed by ...
Background, aim, and scope Methodology development should reflect demands from the intended users: what are the needs of the user group and what is feasible in terms of requirements involving data and work? Mapping these questions of relevance and feasibility is thus a way to facilitate a higher degree of relevance of the developed methodology. For the emerging area of social life cycle assessment (SLCA), several different potential user groups may be identified. This article addresses the issues of relevance and feasibility of SLCA from a company perspective through a series of interviews among potential company users. Methods and materials The empirical basis for the survey is a series of eight semi-structured interviews with larger Danish companies, all of which potentially have the capacity and will to use comprehensive social assessment methodologies. SLCA is not yet a well-defined methodology, but still it is possible to outline several potential applications of SLCA and the tasks a company must be able to perform in order to make use of these applications. The interviews focus on the companies' interest in these potential applications and their ability and willingness to undertake the required work. Results Based on these interviews, three hypotheses are developed relating to these companies' potential use of SLCA, viz.: (1) needs which may be supported by SLCA relate to three different applications, being comparative assertions, use stage assessments, and weighting of social impacts; (2) assessing the full life cycle of a product or service is rarely possible for the companies; and (3) companies see their social responsibility in the product chain as broader than dictated by the product perspective of SLCA. Trends for these three hypotheses developed on the basis of the opinions of the interviewees. Also, factors influencing the generalization of the results to cover other industries are analyzed. Discussion Full comparative assertions as known from environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) may be difficult in a company context due to several difficulties in assessing the full life cycle. Furthermore, the comparative assertion may potentially be hampered by differences in how companies typically allocate responsibility along the product chain and how it is done in SLCA, creating a boundary setting issue. These problems do, only in a limited degree, apply for both the use stage assessment and the tool for weighting social issues. Conclusion Despite these difficulties, it is concluded that all three applications of SLCA may be possible for the interviewed companies, but it seems the tendency is to demand assessment tools with very limited life cycle perspective, which to some extent deviate from the original thought behind the LCA tools as being holistic decision aid tools. Perspectives It is advocated that there is a need to focus more on questions regarding the relevance and feasibility of SLCA from several different perspectives to direct the future methodology development.
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